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Hacked by bonzfrozenWed, 09 Oct 2013 11:24:58 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6EcoCashSave: Econet Now Allows You To Save, While Gaining Interesthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/6Jh_tpfuUsk/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/10/ecocashsave-econet-now-allows-you-to-save-while-gaining-interest/#commentsWed, 09 Oct 2013 11:24:37 +0000Kudzai Tusohttp://technews.co.zw/?p=398By Kudzai Tuso – Econet Wireless, through it’s now gigantic EcoCash service, now allows users to access a saving space, where funds gain interest. This was announced through the press release below, published this morning: Three million Zimbabweans who use...

]]>By Kudzai Tuso – Econet Wireless, through it’s now gigantic EcoCash service, now allows users to access a saving space, where funds gain interest. This was announced through the press release below, published this morning:

Three million Zimbabweans who use the EcoCash Wallet can now also operate a savings account

Econet Wireless has launched a new service called EcoCashSave, which allows an EcoCash customer to move money from their eWallet to an interest bearing account in a matter of seconds.

Whilst banks generally do not give interest on deposits of less than $800 the EcoCashSave deposit account will give interest even on $1 as long as the money has been there for 30 days.

Opening an EcoCashSave account is also very simple, as a customer can set up the account on their phone themselves by following a few simple instructions. The EcoCash system is the one that sets up the account, and assigns an account number automatically.

You also do not have to complete any forms if you already have an EcoCash wallet, neither do you need to see an agent, even though agents can help you. Once your account is open, you can move money in and out as you like without any charges whatsoever.

The money held in EcoCashSave accounts is held by any of the banks that are integrated to the EcoCash system. It is also possible to move money from an EcoCashSave account to a normal bank account and vice versa, without incurring any charges.

The EcoCashSave account is aimed at millions of people in the country who until now could not open bank accounts, because the amount of money they deal with is considered too small by banks. It is also intended for the informal business sector, including street vendors, to have access to banking services.

Employers can now also use EcoCashSave for paying wages and salaries. EcoCash has also set up a payroll services, that allows an employer to send money to any number of people using a cell phone or computer.

A construction company for instance that pays weekly wages can use EcoCashPayroll to pay weekly wages into the EcoCashSave accounts of its employees.

Once they receive the money, they can keep some of it and earn interest, and make bill payments whenever they like, or they can go to an EcoCash agent and get cash.

]]>By Kudzai Tuso – Mandla Ncube, a Zimbabwean cultural activist, has launched an online petition against Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Board and Management. This latest act of clicktivism beckons Minister of Energy Dzikamai Mavhaire to take action because the power authority has, “…failed the people of Zimbabwe by the constant and destructive power cuts without any communication on the status quo and details of their power cuts routine.”

Several other affected individuals jumped in to lodge their issues as signatories to the petition.

“Service culture is in dire need of change. Respecting the commitment to the Zimbabwean people that are paying these people’s salaries needs be of importance,” states one.

Below, an extract of the petition:

We call upon the Board, Directors and Management of ZESA to respect the people of Zimbabwe, honor and fulfill their mandate and supply electricity to the nation or resign and handover to capable individuals with the people of Zimbabwe at heart and committed to the delivery of the mandate of providing affordable, safe, and reliable electricity, and engineering and telecommunication services.

Where is the revenue from Prepaid ZESA purchase going if it is not facilitating forupgrading, repairing and investing in purchase of equipment required for an uninterrupted power supply? Who is responsible and till when are the power cuts to continue without informing us of cause and routine.

WE ARE TIRED OF LOAD SHEDDING. ZVAKWANA, SOKWANELE.

Change.org is one of the world’s largest platforms where individuals and groups with an agenda they want to raise to pledge for support can dock them and make some noise. Ncube’s petition is just one of many, with more than four petitions on issues within Zimbabwe being launched this year.

Notably, widespread power cuts have been one of the biggest topics on social media over the last three days.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/10/cultural-activist-launches-online-petition-against-zesa-on-change-org/feed/38http://technews.co.zw/2013/10/cultural-activist-launches-online-petition-against-zesa-on-change-org/Econet Wireless Launches Drought Insurance Service for Farmershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/C0zolXUE82k/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/09/econet-wireless-launches-drought-insurance-service-for-farmers/#commentsThu, 26 Sep 2013 10:50:06 +0000Richard Kasekehttp://technews.co.zw/?p=385By Richard Kaseke – In another exciting new project by leading mobile network Econet Wireless, farmers in Zimbabwe can now access a weather-indexed drought insurance service as part of an umbrella agricultural programme called ‘EcoFarmer’. The service acts as a...

]]>By Richard Kaseke – In another exciting new project by leading mobile network Econet Wireless, farmers in Zimbabwe can now access a weather-indexed drought insurance service as part of an umbrella agricultural programme called ‘EcoFarmer’. The service acts as a buffer through which farmers will receive compensation for failed yield owing to unfriendly rainfall levels.

The service is similar to a service launched by Safaricom, Kenya’s mobile giant – the same company which founded M-Pesa, a mobile banking solution after which EcoCash was modeled.

The insurance process is pretty straightforward – a farmer who joins the scheme receives a weather monitoring device which they activate and is linked to their profile with Econet Wireless. The device measure various elements such as rainfall levels, humidity and temperature. Meanwhile, the farmer pays rates as low as 8 cents per day for the cover. This amount paid through prepaid phone credit.

In the event that the farmer’s crop fails, they stand to receive compensation of as much as $100 for every 10 kg seed pack planted in the season.

Econet has also partnered with Seed Co to produce special seed packs that contain a small plastic container with a special number that the farmer must SMS to the network. As soon as Econet receives the number, they know exactly where the farmer is located.

According to Econet Wireless, “When a farmer can plant crops knowing that crop failure does not mean hunger for the family, they will be encouraged to plant more crops and therefore increase national production.”

Trials of the new service will be conducted in Mashonaland East province starting this November. Following success in that test sample, Econet will thereafter open it to the rest of the country.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/09/econet-wireless-launches-drought-insurance-service-for-farmers/feed/20http://technews.co.zw/2013/09/econet-wireless-launches-drought-insurance-service-for-farmers/WhatsApp is About to Get Better: New Push-to-talk Feature is Herehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/Wdb7uNdMitk/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/08/whatsapp-is-about-to-get-better-new-push-to-talk-feature-is-here/#commentsSun, 11 Aug 2013 06:44:47 +0000Komborerai Murimbahttp://technews.co.zw/?p=377WhatsApp, the messaging giant, has now poised to take a step further in its service by announcing that it will be releasing an upgraded new feature across supported devices. The new push-to-talk feature will allow users to send audio messages...

]]>WhatsApp, the messaging giant, has now poised to take a step further in its service by announcing that it will be releasing an upgraded new feature across supported devices. The new push-to-talk feature will allow users to send audio messages simultaneously in ‘conversation’ notation designed to make it much easier to talk (Instant Audio Messaging). A user simply presses and holds a button to record a message and as soon as they release, the message is sent.

This attractive new feature was announced by the company’s founding CEO Jan Koum who explained that this feature was meant to set it apart from other messaging services.

In recent times, many competitors, long standing and new have grown more aggressive in order to compete with WhatsApp, now the most used mobile chat client in the world. Some of these competitors include WeChat and Japanese born, Line App.

However, WhatsApp which now transmits a staggering 31 billion plus messages per day is well beyond the reach of its competitors and likely thing is, the new push to talk feature will increase the app’s use. The feature is pretty clever WhatsApp.

The next few months should be exciting. Question is, as widely used as WhatsApp is now, will this new feature take a toll on voice calls as it’s instant messaging service has hit Short Messaging Services (SMSes)?

The push-to-talk feature will come as an upgrade within the next 24 hours and is to be released across all supported devices at one time.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/08/whatsapp-is-about-to-get-better-new-push-to-talk-feature-is-here/feed/20http://technews.co.zw/2013/08/whatsapp-is-about-to-get-better-new-push-to-talk-feature-is-here/Econet-owned TN Bank Now officially Steward Bankhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/VoUkmDYhQyM/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/07/econet-owned-tn-now-officially-steward-bank/#commentsThu, 04 Jul 2013 09:05:17 +0000Richard Kasekehttp://technews.co.zw/?p=359By Richard Kaseke – It is now official. TN Bank, now a wholly Econet Wireless Zimbabwe owned entity is has now been officially branded to ‘Steward Bank’. The purple-brand Steward bank which will run on the slogan ‘Your Money, Our...

]]>By Richard Kaseke – It is now official. TN Bank, now a wholly Econet Wireless Zimbabwe owned entity is has now been officially branded to ‘Steward Bank’.

The purple-brand Steward bank which will run on the slogan ‘Your Money, Our commitment’ comes to Zimbabwe after Econet Wireless managed to secure the remaining 55% of the bank’s stakeholding, an acquisition which began in July 2012 when Econet Wireless acquired a 45% chunk of the entity.

As explained by the CEO, Mr Kwanele Ngwenya, the name Steward Bank stems from reference to a Steward who is a ‘guardian, an overseer, one who commits to administering, managing and protecting.’

‘We are building a solid, reliable and competitive bank bench-marked against international best practice. I am proud to say that we think globally and act locally,’ says Mr Ngwenya.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/07/econet-owned-tn-now-officially-steward-bank/feed/19http://technews.co.zw/2013/07/econet-owned-tn-now-officially-steward-bank/It’s Now Cheaper to Fly to Byo with Air Zimbabwe Than to Drivehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/QADvpXjMWno/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/its-now-cheaper-to-fly-to-byo-with-air-zimbabwe-than-to-drive/#commentsThu, 13 Jun 2013 12:17:45 +0000Richard Kasekehttp://technews.co.zw/?p=349In a ‘pricing trial’ announced by Air Zimbabwe, the airline has cut prices in airfares by up to a whooping 60% exclusion for some destinations. With this price release, there is a tasty little realization which makes the idea of...

]]>In a ‘pricing trial’ announced by Air Zimbabwe, the airline has cut prices in airfares by up to a whooping 60% exclusion for some destinations. With this price release, there is a tasty little realization which makes the idea of flying to Bulawayo quite attractive. Yes, as the title says, it will probably cost you less to get a return ticket with Air Zimbabwe than to fuel your car and drive there.

An air-ticket from Harare to Bulawayo now costs $105 from $300, bringing the cost for a one way trip down to a mere $61. That same amount of money might match or could actually fall short in buying enough fuel to drive to the same destination.

However, this promotional is going to last only up to 31 July after-which the airline will review its pricing for both domestic and international flights.

Meanwhile, however, Air Zimbabwe has provided more than enough incentive to boost its sales, because many other routes are going to receive delicious discounts. Among these, a return trip from Harare to Victoria Falls has now been reduced to $180 from $421 and Harare to Johannesburg (which is pretty much as local as Bulawayo now) has been reduced from $420 to $275.

Despite these cuts, Air Zimbabwe is expected to still break even owing to its use of smaller aircraft for these destinations.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/its-now-cheaper-to-fly-to-byo-with-air-zimbabwe-than-to-drive/feed/18http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/its-now-cheaper-to-fly-to-byo-with-air-zimbabwe-than-to-drive/Facebook Copies #Hashtags, those Twitter Thingieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/Wk8dsr19j_Y/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/facebook-copies-hashtags-those-twitter-thingies/#commentsWed, 12 Jun 2013 20:45:23 +0000Tichaona Jermaine Gazahttp://technews.co.zw/?p=337Since most people fell in love with Twitter, hashtags have been all over the place! Not that many people realize that using hashtags #likethis on Facebook meant squat up to now (outside the fashion statement); for some time the trend...

]]>Since most people fell in love with Twitter, hashtags have been all over the place! Not that many people realize that using hashtags #likethis on Facebook meant squat up to now (outside the fashion statement); for some time the trend seems to have caught on fast. Everyone was doing #this already, with or without Facebook’s support. Well, mainly because it looks cool, neat and it made statuses look cool. Well, today, Facebook announced that it will now support (officially) the use of hashtags on it’s social network for content grouping purposes.

What does this mean? Well, just like on Twitter, content containing the identical #hashtags will be grouped into one big pot for public consumption in any wide searches performed using stated keywords. Not that it’s exactly going to feed into hashtags which are uncommon such as #LateForCheckup (as what users were used to), but commonly shared hashtags such as #ZimElections2013 for the forthcoming elections will mean anyone who searches using that keyword will access information tagged with that hashtag.

From the Facebook blog itself, hashtag support will allow for three things. Firstly, it will allow for the searching for a specific hashtag from the search bar. For example, #ZimElections2013. It will also allow for the composition of posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results and lastly, it will enable users to click on hashtags that originate from other services. So instead of the plain text content coming when a tweet was sent to Facebook feed for instance, now the services can be better linked to direct to richer content on other services such as Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr – all through these hashtags.

To answer your question, yes, this is now Fwitter. If Twitter were Apple, a lawsuit would have been brewing five minutes after that blog post. But, as it comes to show, hashtags are not the first idea Facebook borrowed from its rival – not too far back the social network even changed it’s ‘subscriber’ button to emulate ‘followers’ on Twitter.

Copied or not, however, this new functionality has some elements to look forward to. It’s bound to open some new dimension in social networking.

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/facebook-copies-hashtags-those-twitter-thingies/feed/22http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/facebook-copies-hashtags-those-twitter-thingies/Herald Now Back Online After Two Hours of Outagehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/Lbu2cNcKfRY/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/herald-now-back-online-after-two-hours-of-outage/#commentsWed, 12 Jun 2013 18:50:49 +0000Kudzai Tusohttp://technews.co.zw/?p=330The Herald, which was attacked by a group called Anonymous Africa grounding it for close to two and a quarter hours, is now back online. It is apparent that The Herald was hit using the same DoS (Denial of Service) method...

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/herald-now-back-online-after-two-hours-of-outage/feed/23http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/herald-now-back-online-after-two-hours-of-outage/The Herald Has Been Attacked. Third Targeted Site Hit Within 9 Hours.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/f0iKbPusBGw/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/the-herald-has-been-hacked-third-targeted-site-hit-within-9-hours/#commentsWed, 12 Jun 2013 18:26:59 +0000Komborerai Murimbahttp://technews.co.zw/?p=323The website for Zimbabwe’s largest Newspaper, The Herald, has been attacked by a group of hackers calling themselves Anonymous Africa who have been making contact with the world through Twitter. According to Anonymous Africa’s Twitter stream, the website was taken down...

]]>The website for Zimbabwe’s largest Newspaper, The Herald, has been attacked by a group of hackers calling themselves Anonymous Africa who have been making contact with the world through Twitter. According to Anonymous Africa’s Twitter stream, the website was taken down shortly before 1826Hrs, at which time they tweeted “http://www.herald.co.zw is tango down!”

The reason for this attack is seemingly the publishing of content supporting President Mugabe, a chain which started with the attack of a South African Newspaper, IOL News, which published on its website after coming back online hours sometime after 1400Hrs:

Independent Newspapers today came under attack from an organisation that claimed it did it because of the media group’s alleged support of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.

The stoppage method used by the hackers, according to IOL News is DoS (Denial of Service), which basically involves surging traffic to a website until it’s disruptively slow or crashes entirely, thus suspending it. After this happens, the website is inaccessible.

Anonymous Africa’s Twitter stream shows the group’s activity, largely characterized by a pattern beginning with an announcement or two of its next target, a second just before hacking the website and another after the site is down.

ZANU-PF’s official party website which was the second target was hit sometime before 1534Hrs when Anonymous Africa announced taking the site down. At the time this article was written, both the Herald and ZANU PF official websites were still down (Screen Screen-grabs below).

]]>http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/the-herald-has-been-hacked-third-targeted-site-hit-within-9-hours/feed/41http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/the-herald-has-been-hacked-third-targeted-site-hit-within-9-hours/iDrive Now A One-Stop-Shop With New Online Driving Study Resourcehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnewsZimbabwe/~3/GamtbDGxlFA/
http://technews.co.zw/2013/06/idrive-now-a-one-stop-shop-with-new-online-driving-study-resource/#commentsTue, 11 Jun 2013 06:38:16 +0000Komborerai Murimbahttp://technews.co.zw/?p=293A few weeks after the initial launch of iDrive Zimbabwe the online provisional licence test centre, the hit website has now been equipped with a study guide which prospective drivers can now go through for a total online provisional licence...

]]>A few weeks after the initial launch of iDrive Zimbabwe the online provisional licence test centre, the hit website has now been equipped with a study guide which prospective drivers can now go through for a total online provisional licence test preparation.

Initially, the service came with test questions which would be taken over a ten minute period, similar to the actual learner’s test administered by the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID).

The latest addition of the study guide now makes available reading material to users, which contains information similar to that found in the Highway Code.The content is arranged in easily accessible and neatly classified topics which all come standard to the required knowledge for the provisional licence testing.

In the near future, iDrive is also going to incorporate onto their service information centres on procedures and guidelines on applying for provisional drivers licences. Impressive enough, iDrive aims to start feeding in best practice guidelines and tips from around the world for the road traffic systems similar to those in Zimbabwe. This drive, they state, is focused on “influencing improved driving standards and not simply churning out test competent drivers.”

iDrive’s clever design and utility has, in under three months, made it one of the fastest growing online services in Zimbabwe.